Over the last decades, Southeast Asia has experienced a rapid growth in international tourist arrivals from 21.2 million in 1990 to 96.7 million in 2014 (UNWTO, 2015a, p. 4). Tourism is no longer only regarded as a mere income generator, creator of jobs, or socio-cultural phenomenon, but also serves as a tool to foster beneficial and locally driven development in all its dimensions (Scheyvens, 2002). Recent years have shown a steady increase in being used as a tool for development and poverty alleviation in the world's less developed countries (Darma Putra & Hitchcock, 2012; Holden, 2013; Novelli, 2015). Organizations such as the World Bank, UN agencies, NGOs, and governments put high up on the to achieve objectives of livelihood diversification, community empowerment, poverty alleviation, and development (Christie et al., 2013; Spenceley & Meyer, 2012; UNWTO, 2013). Understandings of development have significantly changed over the years, moving beyond ideas of economic growth towards the inclusion of social and environmental aspects. As part of the post-2015 agenda, development focuses on the eradication of poverty and hunger as well as on health, education, gender equality, sanitation, clean energy, and economic growth (UN, 2015). It further includes action against climate change, responsible consumption and production, the reduction of inequalities, and the conservation of the environment (UN, 2015). The UN includes as a key activity to contribute to the achievement of its former Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the newly implemented Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), thus contributing to being firmly positioned in the post-2015 development agenda (UNWTO, 2015b, p. 2).With broader shifts in development paradigms from top-down and externally- driven development to alternative, participatory, and 'homegrown' development (Potter et al., 2008), in the developing has equally experienced significant changes (Telfer & Sharpley, 2008). The development paradigm prevalent in the 1980s, putting emphasis on local participation, people, and bottom-up development (Chambers, 1983), created the grounds for the emergence of forms of including ecotourism, sustainable tourism, pro-poor tourism, and community-based (CBT) - all of which ultimately aim at generating more beneficial development for local populations (Reid, 2003).The rise of small-scale participatory initiatives - with the larger aim of increasing developmental benefits from - was also fostered through negative socioeconomic and ecological impacts of mass in Southeast Asia. These include the unequal distribution of economic benefits from or the overexploitation of natural resources for uncontrolled resorts such as in Pattaya, Thailand, or Kuta in Bali, Indonesia. While Harrison (2015) recently stated that alternative will never replace mass tourism (p. 53), one can at the same time observe a growing interest in sustainable forms of in Southeast Asia. In countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, for instance, CBT is used as an strategy to mass tourism, making room for local ownership and fostering sustainability and cross-cultural understanding (Boonratana, 2010; Dolezal, 2014; REST, 2013). In the Lao PDR, ecotourism and CBT have officially played an important role in national planning as the local government announced its plan to become a world renowned destination specializing in forms of sustainable tourism (Lao National Tourism Administration, 2004, p. 6).There appears to be an increasing awareness in Southeast Asian that the once 'toured' need to experience greater levels of decision-making and power in order for to work as an effective catalyst for development. As a consequence, in Southeast Asia has experienced a stronger focus on development aspects, both within academia and in practice. …
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Dec 1, 2017
Ruohan Wu 
Open Access